187- ] 2GI 



name of the insect. AtkI this, the prevailing plan, is I submit the proper one. In 

 popular language, a turnip-fly may continue to be so called, though it is known not 

 to be a fly at all. But -when, in scientific language, I call an insect Papilio, I mean 

 that it is a Papilio ; if it is not a Papilio, I do wrong to call it one, and therein am 

 neither scientific nor truthful. 



Other Coleopterous memoirs are supplied by Messrs. Baly, Bates, Waterhouse, 

 and Westwood. Mr. Bates has a coloured plate of Japanese Geodephaga, and 

 Prof. Westwood a plate of 3Ialacodermata from New Guinea. 



The papers on Diptera are all from the pen of the President, and are illustrated 

 by a plate of exotic Tipididce, two plates of AcroceridcB, and one of species of 

 Systropus. Si/stropus crudelis, n. sp., from Natal, was bred from a cocoon resembling 

 one of the Lepidopterous Limacodes or Doratifera ; corroborating the observation 

 of Mr. Walsh, who bred the North American Si/stropus macer from a cocoon of 

 Limacodes hi/aliniis (Pi'oc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., ix, 300). A doubtful species of 

 this genus, not mentioned in the monograph, has been described by Dr. Philippi, in 

 the paper mentioned below, under the name of Systropus (?) cMlensis. 



It is so long since the Society has had the opportunity of publishing anything 

 on the Diptera, that it seems almost a pity to point out that, as Mr. Verrall informs 

 me, the supposed new Chilian AcroceridcB were most, if not all, of them described by 

 Dr. Philippi in 1865. Prof. Westwood appears to have overlooked the " Aufzahlung 

 der chilcnischen Dipteren " published in the Verh. zool.-botan. Ges. Wien, xv, 595 — 

 782, pi. xxiii-xxix. The curious hunch-backed form Megalijhus (Trans, p. 511, pi. v) 

 is figured by Philippi, and all the four species, 31. pictus, tristis, gracilis, and siihcy- 

 lindricus, are described by him under the same names (Verh., pp. 641 — 644), with 

 two other species, M. crassus and ohesus. The specimens in the Hopeian collection 

 had MS. names attached, and as these have happily been retained, Dipterists are spared 

 a number of synonyms. I may add that Schiner (Reise der Novara, Zool. Dipt., pp. 

 140 — 144, in 1868) referred Megalyhus, Philippi, to Thyllis, Erichson, re-described 

 M. gracilis, and re-named M. crassus as Thyllis Philippii, on the ground that there 

 was already a Thyllis crassa. From the list of species of Lasia hitherto described 

 (p. 508), Prof. Westwood has omitted L. cyaniventris, described in 1867 by Jiinnike 

 (Abh. senck.Gesells., vi, 351), and L. superba, described in 1868 by Schiner (Novara, 

 Dipt., p. 143), both from Chili ; and of the four species added on p. 509, two at least, 

 L. (Bnea and L. nigripes, are described in the above-mentioned paper by Philippi 

 (pp. 647, 648) under the names Panops ceneus and Panops nigripes. Three other 

 Chilian species, P. carbonarius, rufus, and pullus, are also described by the Professor 

 of Santiago ; but from these it would seem that Prof. Westwood's Lasia aneivenfris 

 and hicolor are distinct. Query, however, whether L. ceneiventris is not the cyani- 

 ventris of Jiinnike ? Of the genera of Acroceridm mentioned by Prof. Westwood 

 on p. 517, it may be observed that Exetasis, Walker, is, according to Loew (Wien. 

 ent. Monats., i, 34), and Schiner {ubi sup.), identical with Ocnxea ; that Eulonchus 

 was established by Gcrstiicker, not by Loew, JE. tristis having been first published in 

 1872 ; that Opsebius was established by Costa, not by Loew, 0. inflatits having been 

 only re-described in Beschr. europ. Dipt., and Pithogaster, Loew (Wien. ent. 

 Monats., i, 33) is a synonym of Opsebius ; that Mesophysa was established by Mac- 

 quai't (1838), not by Tliomson, M. Australasia having been first published in 1868, 

 and Schiner sinks Mesophysa in Panops. To Prof. Westwood's list, besides 



